Sprint swimmer all fired up to make waves for new country

By PETER JESSUP

Little of Vivienne Rignall's life has been spent in New Zealand, but the Germany-resident sprint swimmer has a burning desire to represent this country at the Sydney Olympics.

Her face is not familiar to most other members of the country's swim team, with their first chance to spend time together likely to be a pre-Games camp at Auckland in early September.

The 26-year-old Rignall was born in Germany to a German mother and Kiwi father, grew to the age of 3 in Devonport and remembers nothing of it.

She has since lived overseas.

Her first contact with Swimming NZ came just after the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games, when she indicated a desire to try for a national squad spot.

There are plenty of links. She travels out regularly to swim for the Parnell club and brother Benjamin is studying medicine at Otago University.

Dedication to her cause means she no longer lives with mum Hadwa and dad Michael anyway, having moved from their home in the south to Hamburg to join a specialist sprint coach and his squad of world champions.

No one had heard of Rignall until she made headlines by shunting Toni Jeffs out of the one Olympic spot for a 50m swimmer.

Jeffs beat Rignall into second at the Olympic trials in Henderson this year with a time of 26.03s and looked to have secured the sole place.

But Rignall, unable to attend the Australian Olympic trials last month that were set by Swimming NZ as the last qualifying meet, asked for a last chance at a Fina-approved swim in Sheffield on May 27, a week after the deadline for qualifying times.

Swimming NZ said yes, Rignall swam 25.92s and was selected in the spot.

Now Jeffs must beat the Fina A time of 25.97s to secure a second start for New Zealand.

Rignall's focus now is on continuing the rapid improvement she has managed under Dirk Lange, also coach of British champ Mark Foster, European champ Sandra Fokker and world champ Therese Alshammer, who has the world shortcourse 50m and 100m records.

"When I first joined him he put me on lots of gym work, which I hadn't done much of before, so it's been tough for me," she said.

"My development has been enormous over the past 12 months. Every meet now I set personal bests and I think there's still some more to go because I know there are still some areas I'm deficient in."

Lapping with champions had pulled her up, too. Their professional attitude was an inspiration.

She swims in the German nationals that double as Olympic trials in Berlin this weekend and will be looking to better her Sheffield time and prove herself a real Sydney contender - though she is not predicting when she will peak.

Through 1999 and this year, Rignall has swum at critical meets, including last year's Pan Pacs.

National coach Brett Naylor is happy that she is in good coaching hands and is content to monitor her progress long-distance via e-mail.

"She's shown good intentions all along. I have no concerns about her commitment," he said.

There is little time for anything outside swimming, but she is pursuing a degree in business administration and works part-time in sports marketing.

What time is left is given to fiance Carsten.

The violin she likes to play is in the cupboard while her sport commands her life.

Rignall said: "Right now I'm over the moon, just trying to cope with the thought of swimming at the Olympics, swimming for the country I have really just started to know about and build links to."

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